6 Mendix Shortcuts to Create Apps Instantly

The Mendix Business Modeler is filled with shortcuts to make app development quick and easy. In fact, I have started to suspect our R&D department is trying to make the mouse obsolete and empower developers to create apps with just a few keyboard clicks. Below, I’ll provide a comprehensive list of all the shortcuts; much of this material can also be found on the documentation and previous blog posts.

1. Autopopulate

Whenever you create a page and want to show a list of data, you can accomplish this with a data grid widget and connect the grid to your data model, which is usually an entity. The following window pops up right way:

The Auto-Fill option is always pre-checked to make it easier to automatically fill the contents. Instead of typing in the names of the columns, organizing it and moving it left and right, adding more columns etc., just leave the box checked and let Mendix do the rest!

For example, if I pick Course for my entity and the Course contains Title, Description, Duration, Price and Level as attributes/columns used to describe the course, the checkbox will automatically populate the page with all the information. The picture below shows an automatically filled list of the courses.

Notice how it prepopulates the search functionality and new and edit along with delete options and all the necessary data columns.

Although the auto-fill option is there to make application building easier and faster, you can always uncheck it and create everything manually, if needed. Furthermore, once the page is created and populated, you can move, delete, resize and add columns as needed and display the data as desired.

2. Autogenerate

Another shortcut that is very helpful when creating pages is the auto generation of new and edit buttons.

Once I discovered the Generate Page button, creating the new and edit buttons became super easy. You can generate the page and Mendix automatically creates New and Edit pages along with linking the pages to the proper buttons.

No more creating New and Edit pages manually; just let Mendix do it for you!

3. The F [0-12]

Now let’s move on to all the F# buttons. Below is a list of the current shortcuts. My favorite one when I started out developing in Mendix was F1. Whenever I needed to open the documentation or figure something out, the F1 button was a lifesaver.

When you press F1, it automatically opens up the documentation on your default browser and it knows where you are in the Modeler. Having trouble with a microflow? Press F1 and all the microflow documentation comes up. Trouble with the grid view page? Press F1 and all the grid view documentation comes up.

Another nice shortcut that I use often is F11, which turns the development screen into a full screen and you can have a nice full view of your microflow. It can be quite helpful if you are debugging or creating large processes. The F5 and other deployment buttons are useful as well! You can quickly see your app as you develop and launch it into the cloud.

F buttons

Resulting Action

F1

HELP button to show documentation

F2

Change captions and wording in microflows

F3

Finds next results

F4

Synchronizes project directory

F5

Launches app in the cloud – literally one click of a button!

F6

Deploy app for eclipse

F7

Creates a deployment package for acceptance or production environment

F8

Goes to the next error

F9

Opens up a browser to view the app in your desktop

F11

My favorite – full screen view of the development environment

4. CTRL + [a-z]

All the control buttons can do lots of functions, the most important being Copy and Paste!

Ctrl buttons

Resulting Action

Ctrl + arrow keys

Move the selected items up or down or left or right

Ctrl + C

Copy the items onto the clipboard

Ctrl + Enter

Confirming the changes you made and closing the form you are working on

Ctrl + F

Search for text in the Modeler – easy to find items!

Ctrl + G

Quickly navigate to any page, microflow or item that’s part of your project

Ctrl + N

Create new items

Ctrl + S

Save changes on your opened tab

Ctrl + Tab

Helpful to navigate between all the open tabs

Ctrl + V

Paste whatever you copied

Ctrl + W

Close current open item

Ctrl + X

Same as Cut – copy the selected item and delete it

Ctrl + Y

Redo the last action

Ctrl + Z

Undo the last action

5. Combo Buttons

The combo buttons are another nice feature for creating new projects or opening existing objects, finding advanced items and deploying your app in tablet or phone format to see your results. These are great additional buttons to use whenever needed or if your mouse just stops working.

Combo Buttons

Resulting Action

Ctrl + F9

Deploy the mobile app into your browser

Ctrl + Shift + F

Find advanced items

Ctrl + Shift + F9

Deploy the tablet app into your browser

Ctrl + Shift + N

Create a new project

Ctrl + Shift + O

Open an existing project

Ctrl + Shift + S

Save changes in ALL documents opened

Ctrl + Shift + W

Close all document tabs

Shift + F3

Find previous results

Shift + F5

Stop the current running project

Shift + F8

Go to previous error

6. Miscellaneous

Other miscellaneous buttons are pretty helpful as well. I use the Enter button almost instinctively to open the properties for the current objects or buttons I am developing with.

Other Buttons

Resulting Action

Arrow Keys

Move elements in the direction of the arrow key

Delete

Delete current items

Enter

Edit the properties of current objects

Escape

Cancel all changes and closes forms

What are your Favorite shortcuts?

This is a list of most of our shortcuts. Did I forget any? What are your favorites? Let me know what you think and comment below!